


Before and After the Storm

by JunHiroki (xPrinceElix)



Series: Stormy Relationships [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, Mild Sexual Content, Multi, POV Multiple, slight divergence from canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-21
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 12:24:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4625277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xPrinceElix/pseuds/JunHiroki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During a time of peace, Iruka and Naruto try and make do in a more peaceful village and find happiness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Relationships

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iruka POV

There was peace in the village for now. Iruka found that the peace was almost worse then the prospect of war sometimes. He cringed slightly when the fourth paper airplane of the school day hit him in the back of the head. Turning around, he glared at his students, all of whom tried in vain to pretend it didn’t happen.

But he already knew who threw it anyway. “Well, since you all have so much energy, you will be assigned four pages of book work to do tonight. All on the chakra system, but class dismissed for now. Except you, Naruto.”

The class grumbled as they packed up their school bags. He smiled slightly as he watched the children, such innocent banter. As he turned his attention back to Naruto, who stood in front of his desk scowling down at his feet, Iruka sighed.

“Naruto, are you upset with me?”

The blonde boy didn’t say anything. Iruka sighed and pushed his papers into a pile. “I wasn’t just going to let them hurt you. Are you still scared about what happened? I can assure you, the jonin handled those shinobi and you’re safe.”

Iruka jumped in surprise when Naruto slammed his palm into the desk. “Why didn’t you let them kill me? It was my fault anyway. You didn’t need to get hurt.” There were tears in his eyes. Gently, he reached out to wipe the tear stains from his cheeks.

“I didn’t want them to hurt you. You’re my student…”

“You almost died! Why would you do it?! I thought you hated me.”

This was certainly a new side of Naruto. Iruka had to admit for a long time he despised what lay inside the boy. But as he had taught the boy, watched the boy grow, there was no way to deny that he understood how he felt. The loneliness, the pain, the isolation.

“I care about you Naruto. I couldn’t stand to see you get hurt. I know that you’re alone, and I thought that you need someone to help you. Actually, I was thinking about seeing if you wanted to move in with me.”

The boy blinked up at him in surprise.

“I mean you don’t have to decide right away, but the Third Hokage already said it was fine if you wanted to. Just so you don’t have to be alone, and I-uh-have the space for you if you want it.”

And that was how the village clown ended up moving into his place. Of course Naruto kept his own apartment, that he occasionally stayed in when he needed space, but more and more, the boy moved into his own home.

Five years later the boy still lived with him. It was actually weirder when he wasn’t there. When Naruto had left for all that time with Jiraya, he had actually been very lonely. But now Naruto was a chuunin about to become a jonin to join the ranks of his friends who, in official paperwork, had surpassed him in rank.

It wasn’t like the boy cared about rank, but Iruka had encouraged him to obtain a title that matched his skill. Tsunade was likely to retire soon, and Naruto would have a shot at becoming Hokage.

Iruka looked at Naruto across the table as he wolfed down his third bowl of food. His eye was blackened and there was a fresh cut down his left cheek, but he didn’t look that bad considering that he just came back from an A-rank mission.

“Did you want to invite Hinata-chan over for dinner? I know you were gone for a week and she was very worried.” Naruto finally tore his attention away from the rice sitting in front of him to look up at him.

“You just want a reason to invite Kakashi-sensei over too don’t you? I know you’ve been getting pretty chummy with him, when I’m not here. Anddddd, he just came back from a mission.” Iruka flushed a bit, but ignored the question. Whatever he felt for Kakashi was most certainly platonic, he was pretty sure of it. Not really, but no one needed to know about any one sided feelings he may or may not have developed over the years.

“Did you want to invite Hinata-chan or not? I need to know how much dinner to make.”

Dinner ended up with both Kakashi and Hinata over, sitting at the table. This was a surprisingly common occurrence since Kakashi had become Naruto’s team leader all those years ago. The jonin claimed he liked having real food every once in a while, and Hinata was Naruto’s girlfriend. A girlfriend that took Naruto almost four years to realize was in love with him.

“Naruto, don’t you have something to tell Iruka-sensei?” Kakashi’s sudden statement broke through the general haze of polite dinner talk. Iruka felt the air immediately freeze with tension.

“Sensei, the tea,” Kakashi stated, placing a finger on Iruka’s wrist. Iruka looked down to the tea that was currently overflowing from the cup that he was pouring. Setting the teapot on the table and hastily wiping the overflow, he stared Naruto down.

“You didn’t get Hinata-chan pregnant did you? I’ll castrate you myself, I promise.” Iruka could feel rage boiling, that had to be what it was, Naruto didn’t do much anymore, he couldn’t have ruined a third of the village or anything. Well, that’s what he hoped anyway.

“Iruka-sensei, we’re being deployed on a S-rank mission.” Hinata’s gentle voice cut through the daggers Iruka was sending at Naruto. This actually made him more nervous. He could handle children, but he couldn’t handle the thought of Naruto and Hinata doing such dangerous missions.

He knew of course jonin had to go on these kinds of things. But Naruto was still a chuunin on papers, certainly he wouldn’t have to go. Shikamaru and some of the others from Naruto’s peer group conducted these dangerous missions; yet even with this thought, he wasn’t prepared to have Naruto too go.  
“You told him before you told me,” was all Iruka managed to sputter out.

“Children never tell mother first, when it comes to dangerous things,” Kakashi replied, likely in attempts to lighten the mood. “And what are you implying? That you are father?” “Most certainly.” “You’re more like the deranged uncle.” “So you aren’t denying that you are like a mother.”

Naruto finally broke his silence. “We’re leaving tomorrow, Iruka-sensei.”

Sighing, Iruka looked at the figures surrounding his table. “I don’t understand, why you aren’t going on those types of missions anymore,” Iruka muttered staring Kakashi down. He didn’t like the idea of the copy-nin going either, but at least he had experience. It also seemed like he was indestructible, the man certainly had gone through hell and back without accelerated healing like Naruto.

“I’m getting old. Just like all the other jonin like Guy and Kurenai, Tsunade decided it was time for the new generation to start preparing themselves for when we inevitably die off,” Kakashi put simply.

There was silence at the table again. Rubbing his temples, Iruka stood. “I’ll start making some food for you guys to take with you.” Hinata joined him in the kitchen to store the left overs and plan the lunches.

He always had liked Hinata, her quiet calm always was a nice thing to have around. Her personality balanced Naruto’s very well, and calmed him down by extension. “Iruka-sensei, don’t be too worried, I’ll look after Naruto. I promise.”

Hinata stood determinately, a pose Naruto did a lot. He guessed that spending so much time with that strong willed guy, had rubbed off a good amount of self confidence on her. “I don’t doubt it. I know you care about him. I’ll leave him in your care.” They worked together for a bit longer, before the clock signaled it was time to return her before her father came rampaging looking for her.

“Take care Hinata-chan, I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

He watched Naruto begin the walk to escort her home, listening to the way Naruto’s loud aggressive voice entwined itself with Hinata’s gentle replies.

Kakashi stood at his side, he could feel the warmth from the other body worming its way through their shirts. Something twisted in his stomach, something he had been working on controlling for the last two years. While Naruto had been gone, the copy-nin had approached him and with their mutual care for Naruto, it wasn’t implausible that they could be friends.

Although there had been that incident some four years ago when he tried to fight him about Naruto’s entrance into the chuunin exams.

Regardless of this, there was still that little bit of tension that he felt when with the other man. As he thought about it, he hadn’t been in a relationship in over 7 years. It wasn’t from a lack of trying, he and any person he tried to date just never seemed to work out. Men and women alike, none of them had struck him like Kakashi had.

“So, sensei,” Kakashi began. Iruka turned to look at him. The copy-nin was only about an inch taller then him, but that inch slightly infuriated him. This was especially because Iruka wasn’t even that short himself. The other had suddenly gotten closer and the lack of space may or may have not been slightly arousing. “I’m down to try if you are.”

Iruka was confused. “What? Try what?”

The silver haired man blinked at him, as if he couldn’t comprehend the fact that Iruka didn’t understand what he wanted. “Having sex. Isn’t that what you wanted?”  
Rage boiled in Iruka’s stomach. How dare he just think it was all about sex, that he would just be a fuck-buddy for a man who apparently was interested in finding out about gay sex. “I have no idea what you think our friendship WAS, but I certainly am not interested in ‘trying’ as you so eloquently put it. Now, if you would please leave, I have food to finish packaging.”

Without looking back, Iruka stalked into the house.

But he would be lying if he tried to say that the sound of the front door closing didn’t hurt him significantly. Trying to ignore the emptiness spreading in his stomach from what he was sure was from ruining any friendship he had with Kakashi, he busied himself wrapping up bentos.

Naruto returned home minutes later, with a pleasant smile on his face. “Iruka-sensei, what are you making?” The blond reached out a hand to try and snag an onigiri from bento Iruka was currently wrapping.

Slapping his hand away, Iruka huffed through his nose. He was still not in the mood to even talk about anything. Naruto looked down at him. Iruka was suddenly aware of how much larger Naruto was, taller then him by several inches now. At least he was taller then Kakashi too, so the height difference was actually not that bad in the end.

“Where’s Kakashi-sensei,” Naruto asked, seemingly picking up on the cause of Iruka’s mood.

“He went home. He doesn’t live here after all,” he snapped.

Naruto sighed. “Did you guys have a fight? Because usually he’s here really late and it’s only about nine o’clock.” Nudging Iruka insistently in the side, Naruto wouldn’t let it drop. Iruka knew the boy well enough to know once he wanted to know something, he wouldn’t stop.

“Well, if you really must know, he wanted to have a quick fuck. I certainly have no interest in just teaching him the ropes of gay sex for the sake of doing it. And to think I would just be okay with just doing something like that. I have standards! I won’t be like all the women who throw themselves at him!”

The anger suddenly just spilled out. Perhaps it was also from the feeling of loss that nothing could’ve happened anyway. He was taken aback when Naruto started laughing. The surprise prevented him from even getting angry at him.

“Do you really think Kakashi-sensei has even been in a relationship? He doesn't exactly have a lot of extra time.”

There was silence as Iruka thought back and tried to actually remember if he had actually seen Kakashi with any women. The only one who he remembered seeing Kakashi with more then once was Kurenai, and Kurenai had just given birth to Asuma’s child. So it certainly was not her.

“Kakashi-sensei never had time for relationships before now. I don’t really think he knows how to get a woman, let alone a man.” Naruto clapped a hand on Iruka’s shoulder.

Had he been wrong, and just fucked up really bad? When he thought about it, Kakashi never really had been that amazing at interacting with people outside of mission and team relationships. The only people he could say Kakashi considered his friends were Guy, Kurenai, and maybe a few other of the jonin, and his team, and dare he say, himself.

“Shit. Was that really his attempt at trying to get me to date him,” Iruka demanded.

Naruto just gave a non-committal shrug. “I mean, he does spend most of his time with me and you, and I don’t really think that he wants to date me Iruka-sensei. I’m pretty sure any thing he learned about how to interact with people is from the Pervy Sage’s dirty books anyway. Don’t be so hard on him.”

A weight almost seemed to crash down on Iruka’s head. Great, now he would have to try and sort things out with the copy-nin. Ancestors help him, in trying to track him down now. He put that off to think about later. For now all he would have to do is make sure Naruto didn’t forget his supplies.

Again.

The next morning, after promising Naruto that he would treat him to Ichiraku when he got back, Iruka made sure to distribute enough food for the four man team. He had brought food for Sakura, who he thought was supposed to be there. But Lee had very loudly, stated that she had to remain behind to heal a heavily injured Guy who just returned from a great test of youth in the land of sound.

Lee and Ten Ten thanked him excitedly. “Iruka-sensei, we will return very soon. I do not expect this mission to take more then a weeks time,” Lee said enthusiastically. Hinata was the team leader, and the mission was to scout a group of s-ranked shinobi deserters who were coming too close to the land of fire for the liking of Tsunade.

He knew that they would likely have to fight, and tried to keep himself from worrying too much. Naruto leaned in right before he left, and whispered, “try and work it out with Kakashi-sensei, you both like each other anyway.” Naruto grinned and turned to walk out the gate, where his team was waiting.

The sakura was falling now, and Iruka stood and watched as they passed out of his sight.

“Hey, sad eyes, you waiting for your man to come pick you up too?”

Iruka turned his attention to the village guard booth. Kotetsu and Izumo sat grinning at him. Sighing, he approached them. His fellow chuunin, while tolerable, often got on his nerves with their banter. He distinctly remembered when the three of them had been summoned to Tsunade’s office, and Kotetsu had been hit with the chair.

“No. And assuming you mean Hatake-san then no, defiantly not.”

“Aww come on Iruka, we all know you two want to get with each other and that you actualllyyyy are on first name basis now. He’s been hanging around your mission desk looking like a kicked puppy, waiting for your shift to start. Did you guys have a lovers quarrel,” Izumo jabbed cheerfully.

Grumbling, Iruka turned away from the teasing and made his way to the shift that he did indeed have in the Hokage’s building.

Like expected, Kakashi was hanging around his mission desk. But to make a point, Iruka called every other shinobi returning mission reports to go before him.

A very distressed looking Kiba slammed his report down and immediately demanded another mission, a very specific one that would require him to find Shikamaru and his team. “I know he requested me as back up. You need to give me that mission,” the dog master demanded.

“As we both know, Shikamaru is on a classified mission, if you really want to be released, you need to get the information from the Hokage.”

“Bullshit, I know that you know exactly what all the missions are.”

While that was probably true, Iruka couldn’t just let Kiba run off to try and find Shikamaru, even if they were debatably partners.

Though, in all honesty, this time he actually didn’t know what mission the Nara was on. “Take up this issue with the Hokage. You are holding up the mission return.” Kiba glanced over his shoulder, and growled to himself, but stepped out of the way to stalk out the door.

Kakashi finally approached the desk, and there was a wary silence. The air was thick with tension. So much so, that others turned to look at them. “Hatake Kakashi, jonin, reporting for the mission I returned from yesterday.” The copy-nin dropped a mission report on his desk and quickly departed.

When Iruka checked the contents, everything was just as normal with Kakashi’s horrible handwriting. He sighed as he stamped it and moved it to the intake slot in his desk to be reviewed later, and was unsurprised to see a smaller slip fluttered out.

He couldn’t quite decipher anything but about half the words. “Home, six, dinner, sake.” Grumbling to himself, he just assumed Kakashi wanted dinner at six at Iruka’s home and he was bringing the sake. Everything relating to the jonin’s handwriting could be left up to question.

Well at least he was free of having to track Konoha’s most elusive ninja.

Six o’clock came around and Kakashi was no where to be seen. Irritation boiled, but it was pretty common for Kakashi to be about fifteen minutes late, as the other was often held up by others who wanted something important.

It was 8 o’clock when Kakashi showed up. At this point Iruka had packed up the food and was about to start grading. He glared as he opened the front door. To Kakashi’s credit had a pretty expensive bottle of sake clutched in his left hand, which Iruka could pretend was the reason he tolerated the extreme lateness of the copy-nin.

Kakashi seemed surprised to see no dinner. “Did you not get my note? Did I forget to put it in the report?”

“Well, yes, but it was so terribly written, I only got that you were coming at 6 for dinner with sake. Which has certainly passed.”

“Can I see the note again?” Iruka pulled the folded piece of paper from his pocket and Kakashi frowned at it. “Sorry about last night. Let’s have dinner at your home at 8. I’ll bring sake.” Iruka took the paper back and stared at it incredulously.

Maybe if he turned the paper upside he could see the eight instead of six. Everything else was just a bunch of garble. Everyone was mandated to take at least one year of calligraphy to make sure they were able to write properly, obviously this guy had not.

“Well, I guess I’ll reheat everything.”

They sat in silence over dinner. Iruka probably had consumed more sake then he originally intended, but this trying to work this out was going to require it.  
It was Kakashi who ended up breaking the silence. “I didn’t mean to offend you yesterday.” Dinner was done, and Iruka began to clear the dishes.  
“I realized after. I’m sure we can discuss what happened like adults then.”

With the dishes in the sink, Kakashi leaned against the counter watching as Iruka washed them quickly and efficiently. “I like you Sensei. That was probably what should have been said first.”

“Oh? Is that so? I too consider you a friend.”

Kakashi turned his body to him fully. “I consider you more then a friend. We’ve been dancing around this for the last few years. I thought that you felt similarly.” Iruka stiffened a bit, a fact that he know Kakashi picked up on because the other squinted his visible eye in mild concern.

“You have romantic feelings for me?” Iruka could not believe his ears. He knew the copy-nin liked him enough to want to be his friend and share meals, but this concept of romantic attraction surprised him. However, as he thought about it, if he could develop these feelings, Kakashi could as well. As limited as he thought the copy-nin could feel anything beyond his odd sense of humor.

“Yes. And you still have not answered my question about your feeling.”

Wiping his hands, Iruka met Kakashi’s visible eye. “Of course. If you really must know, you are not incorrect.” Now that it was coming down to it Iruka couldn’t fight the embarrassment of confessing any sort of feelings. He was worse at this then he had thought.

It wasn’t even like he’d never had feelings for others before and confessed affection. This time was an outlier he never really accounted for. Perhaps it was because for the first time he was actually really invested as friend before hand.

“Well, now that that is out of the way, Sensei what do you say? Shall we date and prove all the kids that were betting on us getting together correct?” Iruka’s eyebrow twitched slightly at the rather unromantic proposal, but with the enthusiasm he could see on what was visible of Kakashi’s face, he could write it off just this once.  
“Yes. That sounds good.”

Still, on the inside Iruka was extremely elated. They stood together for a moment. Iruka watched as Kakashi brought his hand to his face. The copy-nin pulled down his mask in what he knew was the ultimate sign of trust.

Out of respect for Kakashi’s privacy, Iruka never really looked at his face when he was doing things like eating or drinking. Kakashi’s internalized need to be anonymous, was clear by the way he looked a little less comfortable then usual with his face bared.

Slowly Iruka reached out and waited for Kakashi’s permission to slide his hitae-ate upwards. Now he could see the entirety of the copy-nin’s face. Kakashi kept his sharingan eye closed, but allowed Iruka’s fingers to slowly trace around his face.

“You have a beautiful face. It’s a shame you like it covered.” Kakashi didn’t reply and pulled the hair tie from Iruka’s hair. It ghosted down to just above his shoulders, and again there was silence.

Leaning forward Iruka’s lips softly made contact with the other’s. Kakashi’s mouth was responsive, and Iruka could feel the other’s arms pulling him closer at the waist. The simpleness of this action made his heart swell.

Without fail, it got more heated, and Iruka pulled away reluctantly, only half to prevent Kakashi from feeling the hardness growing in his pants. “If you want to continue it may be best not to do so here. I make food here.”

Kakashi nodded, and they quickly found themselves sprawled on Iruka’s bed, shirts discarded somewhere on the path there. “Are you okay with this,” Iruka panted, as he began pulling Kakashi’s pants open. He could see the straining in the copy-nin’s standard issued black underwear, but he wanted to make sure.

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’d be a stupid man to reject anything you’d want to do.” Kakashi grinned down at him, as Iruka pulled the copy-nin from his pants. Wrapping his mouth around the head of the erection, Iruka was impressed at the size. He knew he wasn’t small, but Kakashi’s was still slightly longer, this would be nice.  
Iruka tugged himself out of his pants, stroking himself much tighter then he normally would, trying to prevent from finishing too early. It had been a while since he had done anything remotely close to sexual.

Kakashi wasn’t loud, Iruka hadn’t expected him to be. He strained to hear any change in the copy-nin’s breathing to gage what he liked. Pulling his erection deeper into his throat, he suddenly felt warmth splashing in his mouth. Swallowing, he pulled back. It had been a lot, and he knew a bit still dripped from the side of his mouth.

Wiping the extra semen from his face, he used to slick the path of his hand up and down his own arousal. Kakashi watched him pleasantly, appreciating the view from what he could tell. Iruka finished a few moments later, and quickly reached for the nearest cloth to wipe his hand and slickness still around Kakashi’s softening member.

“You’re good,” Kakashi commented, when Iruka had moved back up in the bed to settle next to him.

“I’ve had some practice,” Iruka admitted slowly.

Kakashi wrapped an arm around him. “I’m curious to know who was lucky enough to have you.” Iruka felt himself flush. Most of his male to male experience hadn’t been in a normal relationship, he had sort of just tagged along a few years ago when invited.

“If you must know, I was the third man occasionally with Izumo and Kotetsu.”

He was relieved when Kakashi only looked mildly surprised. “I should thank them sometime then.” It grew quiet and before he knew it, they were both drifting off to sleep.

Naruto returned two weeks later. Barging loudly around the house and then slamming the door to Iruka’s bedroom open. If he had ducked any later, the kunai Kakashi had thrown probably would have impaled him in the face.

“I was wondering where you were Iruka-sensei. Oh, Kakashi-sensei is here. I can make breakfast then,” Naruto stated, quite loudly. Iruka sat up and stared Naruto down, at this point he wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep.

Kakashi grumbled something into his hip, but Iruka removed his arm from off his lap and began searching for a shirt.

Naruto sat silently at the table, while Iruka reheated some food for him. The blond sat with deep dark circles like bruises beneath his eyes. This was pretty common for Naruto, to exert himself extensively and then come home and sleep for twenty four hours straight. It seemed that whatever adrenaline he had been running on when he got here was on its last strings.

Iruka helped him pull off the the grimy remnants of his jacket, and wiped down his face until Naruto’s brain caught up and took the wet towel to finish it himself. For some reason Naruto seemed more distressed then usual after this mission.

“Was the level of this mission worse then you thought it would be?”

Naruto turned his head slightly with exhaustion in his eyes. “It was fine. The ninja weren’t that hard to find. But they were already fighting with someone when we got there. We couldn’t really see who it was, but they got away. By the time we dispatched the targets, we couldn’t pick up their trail.

The boy pulled a bingo book from his pack and set it on the table. “It must have been this guy. He must have been really powerful, because by the time we got there, two of the shinobi were already dead and the other five were pissed.”

When he opened the book, there was only one picture that was circled in red ink. A boy with white hair and red face tattoos looked back at him. He almost felt like the boy looked familiar, but it distinctly said that it was a shinobi from Sunagakure. It was even stranger because the caption continued “genin, worth 40,000,00 ryou”.

“Why would a genin be worth 40,000,000 ryou?”

Naruto gave a half-hearted shrug. “I don’t think he’s actually a genin. The shinobi he killed were really messed up, disembodied and everything. And what’s even weirder, is I think I saw Shikamaru running around there too. I can’t even be sure.”

“Just sleep for now, I’m sure they’ll figure it out when the report gets turned in.”

Within minutes Naruto was passed out on the futon, snoring impressively. Iruka was still staring down at the bingo book when Kakashi meandered down the stairs. “That kid is probably even younger then Naruto,” Kakashi commented as he browsed through the refrigerator.

“He must be confused, because there’s no way a genin could do what he said happened to two s-rank shinobi.” The more he looked at the boy, the more he looked familiar, yet he still could not place it.

Kakashi sipped his tea as he sharpened his various weapons, deftly using the sharpening stone as he held the kunai between his knees. “Kid looks a bit old to be a genin. Maybe he just didn’t pass the chuunin exams. And you know, that might not even be a boy, it could be a girl.”

As he thought about it, Iruka could see that as well. But, Naruto seemed convinced it was a boy. The thing that stuck out most about the boy, was how one eye was bright blue and the other was grayish-brown. The look on the boy’s face in the picture looked vaguely distressed. For some reason Iruka felt bad for him.

Naruto awoke several hours later, starving, and managed to pester Iruka into getting ramen in the middle of his grading. As they walked down the street, Naruto stretched his shoulders lazily. Even after only a few hours respite Naruto was basically fully recovered. Iruka envied his vitality.

But suddenly Naruto was face down on the ground with a white haired boy next to him. “Naruto, don’t let him get away!” It was Shikamaru who was hurtling down the street following. Naruto had the boy by the waist. This was the same boy from the bingo book. He was surprisingly small, but thrashed around so violently that Naruto was struggling to contain him.

Shikamaru managed to take the boy from Naruto, and held him firmly, only looking mildly annoyed by the kicks that were making contact with his shins. “Shikamaru? Was that you in the forest,” Naruto demanded.

“Yes. But the Hokage is expecting me, so I’ll have to tell you later.” As Shikamaru hurried away with the struggling boy thrown over his shoulder, Iruka just stared after them.

“That was the boy you saw wasn’t it?”

Naruto nodded, very confused. But didn’t say anything else on the matter. The entire meal of ramen was done in silence, Iruka still trying to process that boy. Why was a Sunagakure genin here? And with Shikamaru of all people?

Those questions were answered when Shikamaru arrived at Iruka’s door with the same boy very much passed out over his shoulder. Hinata had arrived earlier and helped put the boy down gently on the futon.

“He’s drugged pretty heavily to prevent him from being so troublesome,” Shikamaru explained. The boy was barely conscious, trying to rouse himself by the look of his eyelids twitching slightly.

“Who is he,” Naruto asked.

“Jiraya’s grandson. His mother died and I went to go get him.”

Hinata seemed concerned. “What’s his name?”

Iruka’s head spun in confusion. The legendary pervert, had the time to have a kid and then have a grandkid? Though ss he thought about it, the sage was gone pretty frequently and for long periods, it wasn’t completely unheard of.

“Arashimae Masao. He’s a genin from Sunagakure. His specialty is transformation without jutsu. The hokage just sealed it to prevent him from being a security risk.”  
Hinata smoothed the boy’s hair from his face, and examined some bruising on his face and arms, gently healing them. Naruto still looked confused. “Why would you bring him to Konoha? Shouldn’t he stay in the in Sunagakure with his clan?”

Shikamaru sighed and looked down at the boy who was stirring more alertly now. “His only direct family was his mother. When she died, he didn’t have anyone else left. His clan didn’t want him because he’s related to Jiraya’s bloodline and he seems to attract missing-nin. Several times rouge shinobi have targeted him, and several times there have been attacks on Sunagakure. He’s powerful and has a hard time controlling his powers. When his mother died, Sunagakure was going to execute him.”

“What? Gaara would never do that time him. He wouldn’t leave him alone,” Naruto began. Iruka knew how much Naruto believed in the current Kazekage, but he also knew politically Gaara couldn’t do much.

“He wouldn’t have had a choice. Masao went on a rampage after rouge shinobi killed his mother, and it killed not only those shinobi, but several of the Sunagakure shinobi. Three chuunin and a jonin were killed trying to subdue him. He even killed one of his clansmen.”

Iruka’s heart bled for the boy. “Why is he only a genin? To kill so many ninja, it would take skill. He’s even in a bingo book.”

Shikamaru looked down at the boy, frowning slightly. “They wouldn’t let him test to be a chuunin because of his bloodline. He’s Jiraya’s, so they wanted as few people knowing about him as possible. The more people that knew about him, the more difficult for them. He didn’t even want to come here, he tried to kill me a few times on the way. It was extremely troublesome.”

“What’s going to happen to him,” Iruka asked worriedly.

“Tsunade said he can be a ninja in our village, he can even become a chuunin when the tests come around. I’ll just find him a place to live. I’m going to have to leave soon anyway, I have to go find out what’s happening with those rouge shinobi who keep trying to attack him.” Shikamaru looked strained and tired.

“He can stay with me and Naruto. We have an extra room anyway. Then he doesn’t have to be alone,” Iruka said quickly. He hated the thought of leaving the boy alone in a new village where he doesn’t know anyway. Besides he was probably safest living with Naruto, and by extension Kakashi.

Shikamaru looked down and simply watched the boy. “Maybe that would be best. If it’s not that much of a hassle. It would save a lot of time and effort for everyone.”  
“It wouldn’t be a problem, would it Naruto?” Naruto just shook his head in response. Shikamaru simply just handed him a pouch of money.

“Kakashi said you’d most likely let him stay. Tsunade didn’t really want him just rampaging around the village,” Shikamaru murmured to him. “I need to leave to help track some of the other shinobi that were pursuing us here. I doubt they’re brave enough to attack Konoha, but I need to find out what they really want with him. Oh, and the boy hasn’t said a word since I found him in Sunagakure, don’t be offended if he doesn’t say much.”

Masao was still very drugged, but it seemed that he could hear whatever it was Shikamaru was whispering to him. Iruka could see him slip a small scroll underneath the hand of the sleeping boy, as he stood.

Shikamaru disappeared into darkening evening, just as Kakashi returned from whatever duties he had had prior. Kakashi looked at the boy on the futon and smiled. “I knew you’d take him in, you bleeding heart.”

Iruka snorted in his general direction and busied himself elsewhere.

The boy woke up completely several hours later. By the time Iruka was conscious enough to register what was going, Kakashi and Naruto had already gotten down the stairs and subdued him. He was thrashing and making sounds like a pained animal.

Seeing the terror in his eyes, Iruka swiftly approached him and with a few hand signs, pressed his palm against the boys stomach. A gentle set of electric pulses he had learned from Kakashi to calm severely agitated students.

Laying him down on his side, Kakashi stepped back as the boy glared up at Iruka.

“Do you know where you are,” Iruka asked gently.

The boys wide eyes told him that he did not. “You’re in Konoha. I’m Umino Iruka, and those two are Hatake Kakashi and Uzumaki Naruto. This is my home and we all live in it. Your grandfather was Jiraya, wasn’t he? The Hokage put you under my care. Do you understand?”

There was a slight nod, and the boy warily sat up and looked around the room. His eyes focused on the door, and he looked like he was about to bolt. “If you try and leave, you’ll have to be taken in by the ANBU. I’m sure you remember them. They aren’t as pleasant as Iruka. We won’t hurt you, but you have to stay,” Kakashi informed the boy.

No response.

The boy pulled his outer robe closer to himself and sat there silently, starting out the large window facing the rear yard. Naruto looked at Kakashi and Iruka and indicated that they should go back to bed. Iruka was relieved, Konoha’s number one most unexpected ninja was good at several things, but befriending even the most difficult people was one of them.

Iruka grabbed Kakashi by the elbow, and they disappeared to allow Naruto to do what Naruto does best.


	2. Looking for Friendship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto POV

Naruto sat down on the floor next to the boy in front of the futon.

“So, I’m Naruto. Shikamaru said your name is Masao.” The boy turned to look at him, his one icy blue eye glowing, in the moonlight from the window. There was a slow nod.

“You’re from Sunagakure I saw. You know Gaara? He’s a good friend of mine.” Another nod. The boy traced his finger along the edge of the scroll Shikamaru had left, and frowned slightly. “He didn’t mean to scare you, it was just his mission to go get you. I saw you beat him up pretty bad though. You must be really strong. Do you know any really cool jutsu?”

A shrug was all he got. This was going to be more difficult then he originally thought.

The boy’s eyes were focused on the moon in the window. “Do you miss your mom?” Naruto watched as the boy’s eyes closed in pain. “I never knew my mom. But you know, it’ll be okay. You’ll find new family. Like, you saw Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei right? When I was younger they helped me. Even the Pervy Sage came and helped me. And you saw Hinata right? She’s the best.”

“Girlfriend?” The boy’s voice was so soft, Naruto almost missed it.

“Yeah! What about you? Do you have someone you love?”

There was silence again. Naruto fought the urge to sigh. One word was better then none, if it really mattered that much. “How old are you? You’re pretty small for a boy,” Naruto tried.

“I’m a girl.”

“WHAT?! Are you for real? They all said you were a boy!” Naruto stared at Masao. As he looked closer, he could see the softness of her face and the slight curve of her body. She was small, and he had to look close, but Masao was a girl. “Masao is the right name though right??”

She nodded. Stupid Shikamaru, can’t even tell a girl from a boy, Naruto thought to himself. Well that was certainly a shocker. “Do you want some more company? I can summon my toad,” Naruto said, fighting to think of something to talk about.

At the mention of toads, her eyes sparked with interest.

Quickly Gamatatsu was summoned. The toad turned from Naruto to Masao in surprise. “Miss Masao, I haven’t seen you in a long time.” “What? You know her?” “Yeah, her mom used to summon me and dad sometimes. How are you though Miss Masao?” Masao just smiled slightly.

“She doesn’t talk much,” Naruto hissed to the toad.

“She’s never talked much.”

Suddenly Naruto was aware of Masao signing quickly, and then there was the largest house cat he had ever seen sitting between them. “Yuuki,” Masao murmured. The cat butted her head against Masao’s shoulder and then turned to Naruto. She wore a tan outer robe with “storm” on the back like Masao and a Sunagakure hitae-ate around her neck.

“Boy, where are we?”

Gamatatsu looked nervous at the sight of the cat. “Yuuki-sama, my dad sends his regards.” The cat gave a quick look at the toad and sniffed in indifference.  
“Konoha. Wait, I didn’t know cats could be summoned.”

“I’m summoned from the Totsuchi Sand Dunes if you must know. Why is Masao here and not in Sunagakure,” the cat demanded. The cat sat proudly, running her tail over Masao’s leg, in what was assumedly comfort.

“She’s going to become a Konoha ninja. One of our shinobi brought her here.”

“Tsunade ordered it huh?” The cat seemed to scowl, and stood. “Masao, it’s good to see you, but I need to go report back. Summon me again soon.” Masao petted the cat and with a small voice, “kai”.

Gamatatsu relaxed. “Ah, Yuuki-sama always makes me nervous. She’s super mean.” Masao laughed quietly and handed a small pack to Gamatatsu and put her finger to her lips. “Yeah, dad doesn’t like when I eat too many of your sweets.”

Naruto soon released Gamatatsu, and it was just him and Masao. Masao seemed slightly more at ease. He watched as she fiddled with the edge of her hitae-ate tied around her right arm, Sunagakure shining in the moonlight.

She looked so sad.

But there wasn’t much he could do. He figured he had gotten about as far with her as he could in one night. While he left to go back upstairs to bed, he looked back to see her moving to stand in front of the window, saying something too soft to hear.

The next morning was a bit uneasy. Masao was extremely wary of Kakashi, and sat as far away from him as possible. Naruto figured it was due to his reputation, even though he wasn’t running nearly as many missions as he did a few years ago in the height of combat, he was still notorious.

“You need to go see the Hokage again today,” Iruka said, after receiving the summons from the mail carrier . Masao looked stressed, but nodded in acknowledgement. “Naruto can take you.”

Masao had changed out of her gray kimono and pants, and into a simple green kimono. He noted that she wore mesh armor underneath it, clearly not believing she was safe here. The red tie she used, hung down, visible for several inches below her slightly shorter tan outer robe. As he looked at her, she looked distinctly cat like, with the red face tattoos looking like whiskers, and her white hair curling up at the top almost like ears.

She growled slightly as he stared at her and he turned his attention back to the road they were walking. The other villagers stared curiously, and she looked visibly even more uncomfortable. “Don’t worry about them, they’re probably just wondering why a Sand shinobi is here. The only one’s they’ve seen are Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro.”

There was an unreadable look on her face as she made an attempt to contain any more outward emotion, focusing her attention on the ground in front of them.

The sound Masao made when Tsunade told her she wasn’t a Sand shinobi any more was heart breaking. The wail resounded around the office, as she collapsed to the floor. She didn’t move when Shizune helped untie and unpin the hitae-ate from her sleeve. Shizune handed it back to her, and she stared down at it.

“You can participate in the chuunin exams in two months, if you desire. But as you are no longer part of Sunagakure, you will be participating as a Konoha shinobi. Sunagakure has officially transferred you here, and you will not be able to return to that village as a Sand shinobi. Do you understand?”

Masao looked up to Tsunade, distraught. Shizune moved to hand her the Konoha hitae-ate, but Masao disappeared into a plume of spoke. Naruto saw her reappear on the roof outside the Hokage office. Where she had been, sat her old hitae-ate.

Shizune offered both to Naruto to take for her. He stood awkwardly in front of Tsunade, not knowing what to think. “Why did she get transferred? I never heard of villages transferring shinobi,” Naruto asked.

“They don’t. This is a special circumstance. They think she is a danger to their village. The only reason she’s here is because Jiraya begged me and Gaara to move her if anything ever happened to him. When he died, there was only one option for her. She was in line for execution. She’s dangerous to any village that harbors her.” Tsunade rubbed her temples and pushed a file towards him.

Opening it, he saw an outline of all incidents involving Masao. Shikamaru had said she had been attacked at the village, but this many times?

“She is the only descendent of any of us legendary sannin at this point. So her blood on it’s own is valuable. Likewise, her mother was a master of sealing jutsu, and the girl herself is able to transform her body into any person or anything without jutsu. These skills would be devastatingly useful to any enemy shinobi that captures her.

“Everything she is, attracts enemy shinobi of all nations. Her existence isn’t well known, but those who know about her are constantly trying to capture her to learn the secrets of her jutsu. It is only out of my respect for Jiraya’s memory that I let her stay here, but I know soon enemies will be brave enough to come here for her. We’ll figure that out when Shikamaru returns.”

The picture of Masao in this file made her look even younger then she was. The file indicated that she was not much younger then him. She was 16, only two years younger.

“We need as few people to know about her true identity as possible. She is already aware that she is to say she is simply a trainee from a much smaller land of fire village if asked, so Naruto, you are to say the same when asked about her,” Shizune said. “You should also try and find her before something happens in the village.”  
It took Naruto two hours to find her. He had only come across her by chance, he had decided to drop in Lee’s dojo to see if he had seen her, only to find her there as well. She was watching intently as Lee and Guy trained.

“Guy-sensei, weren’t you supposed to stay in the hospital for another week,” Naruto asked incredulously. Sakura was probably furious.

“Certainly not! My youthful power has made me very much enthusiastic to get back to training. I am feel fresh and ready to get back to honing my body to become-” Naruto turned his attention back to Masao, who’s eyes followed the sparring intently.

“I brought these for you,” he told her. She frowned, but let him help her tie the konoha hitae-ate around her right arm, covering the space left by her old one. She took her old one, and stuffed it into the pouch at her hip.

“Naruto-kun, your friend has been here observing for the last hour and a half. Certainly she must be an avid taijutsu enthusiast!” Lee’s excitement was barely contained as he ducked a kick from Guy.

“Oh, yeah. Bushy Brows and Bushier Brows-sensei, this is Masao.”

Masao approached the two in the midst of their battle, seemingly unperturbed by the flying fists and feet everywhere. They stopped and enthusiastically bowed to each other, halting mid fight. “Masao-chan, would you be interested in learning the beautiful art of taijutsu,” Guy roared.

With a swift bow to Guy, she turned to Lee. “THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL TESTAMENT TO YOUTH! LEE YOU MAY HAVE FOUD A PEER YOUR OWN AGE!” Naruto felt sweat drip down his temple. She was going to get hurt and it would be all his fault.

“You know, I don’t know if she really wants to train…”

But before he could stop it Lee and Masao had bowed and were going at it. Naruto was in awe when he saw Masao was just as fast as Lee if not slightly faster, that was unheard of. It was clear she did not have nearly as much strength, but she matched all of his movements without any clear signs of tiring.

Lee seemed to realize her caliber and began speeding up and going in with more aggressive techniques. Masao continued to meet him half way. “Leaf Hurricane,” Lee roared. Naruto felt panic surge, she was going to get caught and hurt in that attack. But as he began rushing toward them to stop the fight, Masao leaped on top of Lee and with their combined speed and body weight, threw him into the ground.

He had managed to turn half way and had her by the ankle, both crashed into the floor of the dojo, the high speed of the crash cracking the floor beneath them. Naruto rushed over to look them over, but Masao was already on her feet and pulling Lee up.

“Masao-chan! That was beautiful. Never as someone kept up with Lee! Where have you learned your techniques,” Guy crowed, thumping her on the back. The fact that she was even still standing after getting a back thump from Guy was impressive in itself.

“I’m from a small village, there was a lot of time to train,” Masao replied. Naruto stood agape. That was the most words he had ever heard from her. Lee was even more impressed with her, but for a different reason.

“Masao-chan, we must train together from now on. I see that you are also a leaf ninja! I have never seen you before! Where have you been all this time?”  
“Like she said, she’s from a small village, and she came here to fulfill her duty to the Konoha,” Naruto interjected. The lie was weak, but both Guy and Lee were too excited to think too deeply on it, and apparently didn’t pick up on it.

“A transfer then? Are you a jonin as well?” Lee’s enthusiasm, didn’t let him see Masao’s expression drop. She had been in a much better mood, Naruto worried if she got too upset she would start retreating again.

“She’s a genin, but she’ll be taking the chuunin exams when the time comes for it,” Naruto covered quickly.

“Surely you will be most triumphant! If you do not have a sensei to recommend you, I will gladly vouch for your youthful vigor!” Guy grabbed Masao’s hand and shook it vigorously. “You are the first to even begin to match my star pupil’s skill in the masterful art of taijutsu. And as he is already a jonin, I will gladly take you on as a student until you progress through the ranks!”

Guy and Lee both struck their signature nice guy poses, and rather then be taken aback as most people usually were, Masao smiled. Her eyes closed in the same gentle expression Hinata would take when genuinely happy.

Masao didn’t seem to find the need to say much else as Naruto took her back towards Iruka’s house, but she seemed much more enthusiastic, skipping the tiniest bit. “So you’re good at taijutsu huh? Do you have any special ninjutsu or genjutsu too?” She stopped and leaped to the roofs.

Following her, he saw a quick flash of hand signs. “Fire Style: Spiraling Dragon,” she stated. Fire spewed out of her mouth, similar to the flames that Jiraya produced, but it spiraled up into a curled dragon, the flames spinning faster and faster as the went higher. Cutting off the flow of fire and with a few more hand signs, “Water Style: Freezing Palms.” Masao slammed her palms together within the tail of the fire dragon and the entire dragon combusted with a sound like thunder and boiling hot water droplets scattered around them.

There was only a thin ring that the droplets didn’t hit, that Naruto dove into next to Masao. One of the droplets hit his arm and he was cursing slightly at the pain, he couldn’t image being hit with any more of that water.

“What was that combination,” he asked excitedly. It was a beautiful jutsu, he couldn’t lie.

“Boiling Storm,” she said simply.

Before Naruto could ask more, a few more people leaped onto the roof. Ino, Kiba, and Choji all had come to investigate. The presence of several more new people put Masao on edge, simply based on the way she began edging around Naruto as if to put him between her and the new arrivals.

“I told you it wasn’t Naruto who did the jutsu. He’s not smart enough,” Ino chortled at Kiba. Before Naruto could get too annoyed with them, Masao bent down at eye level with Kiba’s dog Akamaru. She gave a sniff and seemed only mildly repulsed.

“Not a big fan of dogs,” Kiba asked.

She shook her head and then surveyed the others. Looking at Choji, she tossed him a small bag. “For when I ran into you yesterday,” she explained quietly. Naruto saw her produce what was likely a bag of sweets.

“Wow, they’re good,” Choji exclaimed, after getting about two in his mouth.

“He’s going to fall in love with her if she keeps feeding him,” Kiba muttered to Naruto. Choji had Masao by the hands earnestly asking her about her process of making them. Kiba stared at her some more. “Wait, she’s that girl Shikamaru went off on the mission to find wasn’t she? He called me in to try and find her, but Tsunade wouldn’t let me go.”

Naruto didn’t reply, but Kiba seemed to pick up on his silence, and closed his mouth. They just stood together for a moment more to watch.  
Naruto noted that she was smiling, speaking quietly and very few words at a time, but it was an improvement.

By the end of the day Naruto could tell she was exhausted. All of the other’s had come to see her and check out who she was. All of the other’s were intrigued about her origins, trying to nit pick in the way Lee and Guy had not, and Naruto was a bit stressed trying to keep the story straight. He supposed that maybe it was better that she didn’t talk much.

She sat sleepily at dinner, holding her chopsticks almost clumsily. He figured she was exhausted from all the excitement of meeting with essentially all of his friends, which was completely understandable. They all were rather... interesting.. With barely focused eyes she surveyed Iruka and Kakashi, who both made attempts at conversing with her. Naruto was amused at how she only responded to Iruka and how it slightly offended Kakashi.

Granted, she still pretty much only answered every fourth question, and with only a word or two usually, but Iruka seemed decently pleased. It was odd, but it was already like she belonged there. He knew that someday she would be a close friend to many.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter, the Naruto chapters will generally be shorter then the Iruka ones. But in the next chapter we'll get to read about some KakaIru, they were absent basically this entire chapter, sorry sorry. Next chapter we'll be back with some more though. B)


	3. Those You Can't Forget

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iruka POV

Iruka was kept busy over the next few months, trying to keep on top of having a new person in the house. Tsunade periodically sent money over for Masao’s expenses, much to Iruka’s surprise that she even cared to remember something like that. It wasn’t really necessary though, Iruka had lived underneath his means for so many years before Naruto even moved in, that he even had sufficient funds saved for even several years of unemployment if needed.

Although, it wasn’t like the girl needed much. She didn’t eat much, didn’t need many things, and was essentially self contained. The best thing about her was that she was quiet. She didn’t yell or stomp around like her grandfather had been known to do.

He was just glad at this point she spoke with relative ease. It wasn’t like talking to a wall anymore. Her possessions were growing in number as well. Most of them had been weapon gifts from Guy or various pieces of clothing from Sakura and Hinata that they didn’t wear anymore, but there was a small pile in her spare room that was growing slightly.

Masao’s nervousness was growing as the chuunin exams approached. It was a slight thing, but as comfortable as she had begun getting, that same shakiness from three months ago began creeping in again.

“I was thinking about being Masao’s sponsor for the exams,” Iruka told Kakashi, as they sat at the table. Kakashi was idly reading one Jiraya’s horrible perverted books, while he graded. The copy-nin considered him over the book.

“You’re going to have to fight Guy for that right. He’s staked a claim on her since the day she arrived. He loves her almost as much as he loves Lee.”  
“Hmm, maybe I’ll just spectate then.” He paused a bit and briefly considered fighting with Guy about it, but then reconsidered quickly. Focusing else where, he continued, “I think Lee really likes Masao.”

“She is one of the few people who can actually keep up with him.”

“I mean, romantically.” Iruka thought of all the times Lee had began coming around, considerably more often then when only Naruto was living here. The young taijutsu master very much seemed interested in Masao. But from everything Iruka could see, Masao didn’t seem to pick up on this.

Kakashi gave some sort of snort at that comment. “Can that boy even be interested in anything that isn’t Guy’s weird speeches or taijutsu?” When Iruka scowled at him, he continued, “But yes, he must care somewhat about her because he even wears clothes other then jumpsuits when he comes around to see her.”

Lee was a new addition in coming around for dinner. Tonight was particularly lively, Iruka and Kakashi sitting a bit awkwardly at the corners of the square table to account for six people. “Hey, Masao, why do you have a boy’s name? That’s probably why the Pervy Sage still doesn’t know you’re a girl,” Naruto asked excitedly.  
“Naruto,” Iruka began in warning. The boy still had no tact.

But Masao didn’t seem offended. She tapped the top of her chopsticks against her chin in thought. “Toad Grandfather had misheard my mother when she told him how to write my name. It was supposed to be Misao, not Masao. So my birth document was signed as Masao, and since he really only saw me as a baby, he just thought I was a boy. Mother never had the heart to tell him I wasn’t.”

Iruka cringed internally for Jiraya, to think that he had died thinking she was a boy for all these years and not truly knowing her. The conversation continued cheerfully for a bit, until Iruka finally brought it upon himself to talk about the chuunin exams.

“Masao, have you met with Team Anko? You will be participating with them for the exams in a few days.” As expected Masao began quieting. He knew she had met the other genin, Anko had come barreling through the academy demanding to know why some older kunoichi had suddenly went up to her students. One of her students had been hurt so badly in a mission he was unable to participate, but Anko had put up her remaining students up anyway. She was a brute of a woman.

“Yes. They were... accommodating.”

Iruka had taught those students himself two years ago. They were about twelve now, he guessed. Nakagawa Yuri, a girl specializing in genjutsu and Tsuchi Ryou, a boy with a powerful affinity for medical ninjutsu. Both would be a good team with Masao’s devastating ninjutsu and taijutsu.

“Do you feel like you’re ready,” Iruka pressed. She frowned slightly.

“I suppose.”

Lee grabbed her hand excitedly. “You will no doubt do well. Your skill is very great and surely you will succeed with flying colors as expected of such an amazing shinobi.” His enthusiasm seemed to brighten her spirits a bit, but there was still that look of nervousness.

Iruka smiled slightly when he saw Naruto’s reaction to the physical affection. It was caught somewhere between protectiveness and surprise.  
“I don’t want to see the students from Sunagakure.”

There was silence around the table. That was something Iruka hadn’t considered. He had almost forgotten that she wasn’t from Konoha, that she hails from a different village. Sunagakure and Konoha were allies, good ones in fact. But from the bits and pieces she had told them all of how they treated her there, he should have known that she would be uncomfortable.

“EH? Don’t worry about them. You’re a Konoha shinobi now. We’ll be there for you,” Naruto replied loudly. Hinata nodded her agreement. Naruto seemed dead set on welcoming Masao into Konoha, introducing her to everyone and bringing her everywhere when he could. His recent promotion to jonin took him out of the village pretty frequently, but when Naruto wasn’t around Hinata or Guy and Lee took her under their wings.

She smiled back at all of them seemingly reassured.

Kakashi seemed mildly concerned as dinner finished up and the younger people began to disperse. “Sakura brought Masao’s medical examination results over earlier.” Iruka took the file and looked over the charts. From the looks of it, Masao was pretty healthy, but as he looked at an examination review of her nervous system he saw why Kakashi was concerned.

“Chakra system relatively unstable, when performing stress tests that began pushing chakra outside of her control, chakra would begin leaking from her chakra pathway system. Her level of control is great, but when her control wavers, her body is torn apart by the chakra. Would not recommend her to perform in missions beyond a-rank if they are combat related. Particularly susceptible to losing control when under the influence of genjutsu.”

The charts further indicated wounds sustained during examination correlating with the new bandages around Masao’s legs and arms he had seen peeking out of her kimono. “Her jutsu sets are powerful and deeply controlled, but if she loses control of them or her chakra, her body cannot handle the flow of chakra. It seems that her participation in the exam may not be the best thing,” Kakashi replied.

“Well, we can’t just pull her out now.”

Kakashi shrugged in mock indifference. “We can just watch her during the exams. ANBU has been watching her still. They’re worried about the seal controlling her transformation abilities breaking.”

“What’s so bad about her transformation? As long as she’s loyal to Konoha, it could actually be a great asset. I think she’s proven her loyalty.” Iruka kept his voice lowered as he waited for Naruto and Hinata to follow Lee and Masao out of the front door.

“Her transformation allows her to change herself down to the chakra level, she can imitate any shinobi’s face and chakra. Although she can’t copy jutsu, even a sensory ninja can’t tell the difference between her and the one she imitates. They believe she can even transform into animals as well. Tsunade wants to make sure this ability is controlled, so that Masao can never be a risk.”

Iruka had seen the seals all over Masao’s back. He had helped Hinata treat her wounds in the first few weeks she had been in Konoha. They spiraled around her torso, upper arms, and upper legs. A large and very powerful seal. He knew that the sealing process could be very painful for something like that.

They didn’t continue speaking after that. But with all of this new information on his mind, he couldn’t seem to focus on grading anymore. In the back of his mind, he knew he had already finished anyway, he was just checking the grades to calm himself in the normal action.

“Say, sensei,” Kakashi drawled. Iruka looked up to see Kakashi snap his book closed and smile cheerfully at him. “Let’s get our minds off something stressful.” Kakashi glided out of his chair, and behind Iruka, to press a mask covered kiss to the back of his neck. “I doubt the kids will be back for a while.”

Iruka found himself chest down on the bed with Kakashi’s teeth clasped rather aggressively at the nape of his neck. Kakashi was pushing his arousal firmly between Iruka’s thighs, making a point to firmly catch the tip of it on the sensitive skin beneath Iruka’s balls.

They continued in comfortable silence, only the occasional pant or moan breaching it. He was writhing before Kakashi even began using his fingers. One, then two, and finally three. “Come on Kakashi, just put it in, please.”

He pushed his ass up further, trying to convince Kakashi to give him what he wanted. He couldn’t help but moan when Kakashi filly pushed all the way in. It was a gentle, but steady rhythm, he was getting close.

In the end they both finished within moments of each other, Kakashi collapsing over Iruka’s back. He rolled over when Iruka gave a soft groan of discontent with the weight.

Laying together was nice, both of them were busy all of the time, so they didn’t often have time to have sex or anything remotely like that on their minds.  
Kakashi gazed at him lazily, moving to pull on his mask and vest before anyone returned back. “You have the best ass I’ve ever seen. I could do you all night long if the kids didn’t like to barge around the house.”

Iruka flushed and pushed Kakashi’s face in the other direction as he stood to pull on his pants, wiping the remnants of their activities dripping from between his legs pointedly with Kakashi’s discarded underwear.

He couldn’t help but return the compliment. “You have a pretty nice-” Iruka was interrupted by the sound of the door slamming open downstairs, signaling Naruto’s return. He waited for the sound of the door closing significantly quieter and knew Masao was back as well.

When he turned back to look at Kakashi, he could tell that even if he hadn’t finished the sentence the copy-nin knew what he had meant. Beneath the mask, Iruka knew that Kakashi had a filthy grin.

“Well, I’ll make sure to keep that in mind. The next time it comes up.”

Throwing Kakashi’s pants directly at his face Iruka tried to hide his blush. “Assuming I let you. You have been leaving all your shit everywhere and I am the one who has to pick it up, so I’m not feeling that nice anymore. Now get dressed before they come up here and see you like that.”

“Yes, yes, whatever you say.”

The chuunin exams were upon them, and Iruka hadn’t felt this tense since Naruto had run off to try and find Uchiha Itachi. He couldn’t see Masao for the first two parts of the examination, and the worry growing ever more in his stomach.

He spotted Yuri and Ryou, for a brief moment before they had been rushed to the third part of exams. When he didn’t see Masao, his stomach clenched.  
“Iruka-sensei,” Yuri yelped in surprise when she saw him.

“How are you guys? Are you guys okay? Where is Masao,” he fussed. He looked them over, Yuri had a slash across her face and Ryou’s left eye was blackened, but they seemed no worse of then could be expected.

“We passed. Some of the Sunagakure genin tried to attack us, but Masao-neechan protected us. They kept calling her a traitor. She got kind of hurt, but she’ll still be fine, she went on ahead to the third part of the exams. We have to go Iruka-sensei,” Ryou informed him quickly.

True to their words, Iruka stood in the stands and looked down at Masao who was standing in the arena waiting for the beginning of the match. There were bandages around her wrists and her neck. He didn’t doubt that she took the beatings trying to protect the other genin who were five years younger then her.

She was squaring off against a Kirigakure genin. A slim boy who looked considerably less haggard then Masao. There was blood still caked around a cut over her right eyebrow, and her nose clearly had been bleeding a little while ago. If Iruka was being honest, she looked terrible.

He was proud to see that she was standing firm though. She looked up at them in the stands and smiled slightly. Naruto, Hinata, and Lee were standing next to him. He knew Guy was standing on a higher level watching with the other genin’s senseis, but he could almost feel Guy’s excitement.

“Hajime!” The sounding words of the proctor caused the two genin to spring to life.

The two bounced about exchanging a few blows to test each other out. Masao was faster, but the boy seemed to be able to intelligently predict her movements. He felt a surge of pride when a kick of Masao’s sent the boy flying, but his eyes barely caught the movement of the boy cutting her leg with a needle.

Masao didn’t seem fazed, but suddenly there was shock in her eyes and she froze. The boy stood and threw a few more needles, piercing her hands where they were clutched at the lapel of her kimono.

“Ninja Art: Mirage Needles.”

As he watched her eyes were wide in terror. Blood started dripping from her nose, and her hands shook, it was clear she was trying to combat the jutsu.  
“Byakugan,” Hinata said. She was scanning Masao. “Genjutsu. But her chakra system is losing control. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Iruka watched in terror as wounds start growing over her body. Cuts began appearing over her arms and legs, blood dripping slightly. The proctor began the count for the match end, if Masao couldn’t break the jutsu she would be deemed incapacitated.

Suddenly Iruka was aware of Lee, shouting. “Masao, remember we practiced what to do if this happened. Fight it Masao, fight it!” The urging seemed to pass through Masao. Iruka watched as her hand slowly crept towards the pack at her hip. The proctor stopped and waited.

Her opponent went through another set of hand signs, likely to try and increase the intensity of the genjutsu. Iruka knew the amount of will it took to fight genjutsu, and yet he watched as she pulled a kunai from her pack.

He cringed for her while she slowly dragged the blade across her left thigh. The pain broke the jutsu, and she was back, pulling the needles from her hands. Deftly she avoided the subsequent needles the boy sent at her.

Wiping blood from beneath her nose she gave a quick flash of hand signs. “Kuchiyose no Jutsu!” A large lion appeared, it’s fur and mane a blazing color of red. There was a shocked gasp from the crowd, as the hitae-ate on the lion’s head blatantly showed the Sunagakure symbol. That was going to be a pain to deal with after the exams.

Masao and the lion leaped forward, and after a bit of touch and go, Masao finally managed to capture the boy. As Iruka watched, he saw several of Guy’s own techniques, modified for Masao’s skill for speed rather then the strength usually used by Guy and Lee.

“Arashimae Hurricane!” The girl and the lion blazed around the Kirigakure genin and slammed him into the ground. With a cough of blood, the boy did not get up.  
“Hiroshi Taka is unable to continue, by default Arashimae Masao will be advancing onto the second round of the matches.” There was cheering, and Masao grinned up at the stands. But as she began moving away and released her summon, she froze.

There was silence as she fell. She hit the ground with a soft thud, and Iruka was already at her side with Hinata, Naruto and Lee.

“She lost too much chakra, her system is still out of control,” Hinata cried worriedly. She flashed through hand signs, and without a word, Naruto placed his hand in the middle of Masao’s back. Hinata made quick work to push some of Naruto’s chakra into Masao’s body trying to replace the amounts of chakra she had lost and heal some of the wounds that were still bleeding slightly on the girl’s body.

Guy also leaped down, concernedly looking over his new pupil. Masao gave a small sound of complaint when she was finally healed enough to be turned over. Her eyes were closed and her hands came together in front of her, likely in an attempt to calm her chakra system.

“Your chakra system is almost stable,” Hinata told her, and she pulled Naruto’s hand away from Masao’s collarbones likely to prevent too much chakra from reentering the system. “I know I’m not as good as Sakura-san, but I think you’ll be okay for now.”

Masao opened her eyes and focused on the faces around her. Iruka couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief as she sat up. Yuri and Ryou rushed down as well, finally allowed by Anko down now that Masao wasn’t in life threatening conditions anymore.

“Masao-neechan, stupid,” Ryou cried, grabbing Masao’s outstretched hand. The boy was crying, slightly. Iruka thought fondly of how empathetic Ryou had always been. He set about continuing on the healing Hinata had started, but Masao gently pushed it away. “Save your chakra for later.”

Yuri wiped Masao’s face in concern. Suddenly Iruka had realized that Masao had probably spent more time with them then she implied. He knew she would disappear for hours at a time, but he had just figured she had been with Hinata or Guy. But based on the relationship he saw with the kids, he knew she had been working with them for a while.

After Asamu Akihito had been injured, both of these two had been so detached from the loss of their three man team. He knew Masao would have protected them, and taught them new skills. This was made clear as they stood and waited for Yuri and Ryou to take their turns in the arena.

Yuri produced a fire style very similar to Masao’s own Spiraling Dragon, and her opponent was then caught in a genjutsu for long enough for him to be forfeit. Ryou had never been that good with taijutsu, so when he caught his opponent in a powerful flurry of kicks and then severed the boy’s ankle tendon with his medical ninjutsu, Iruka knew just how much Masao must have trained with them.

Masao stood, half supported by Lee, and watched her squad mates in worry, coughing slightly every so often. It was only when Ryou had finished his match had she let herself sag and be taken to the hospital.

She was there for the three days before her next match, the one that would determine if she would be promoted or not. Iruka watched as she squared off with her opponent. Given her age difference to most of the Konoha genin, she was pitted against a genin from Sunagakure, who was only two years younger then her. He sneered at her.

Iruka noted she looked very nervous, making a point to turn her head to look at Gaara who had come as a solidifier of Sunagakure’s political ties with Konoha. The Kazekage nodded the the girl, but otherwise made no other indication of her existence. He could simply assume that the Kazekage could make no indication of her existence or the threat on her life for the safety of his own village.

There had been only secretive announcements of matched genin who would be competing with each other, as to prevent sabotage before a match, and Iruka hadn’t seen the name of the student competing with Masao today. But it was clear that the two knew each other well.

The student clearly did not have Gaara’s patience, and made no courtesies. He screamed profanities at her and even refused to bow at the beginning of the match. “Traitor,” he roared. By this point everyone in Konoha had heard the whispers of Masao’s lineage, it was not something that could be hidden long.

Masao was still considerably weakened from the last fight, and he was aware that she couldn’t expend too much chakra or she would risk the lost of control of her system. She clearly focused more on taijutsu, using techniques from Guy and Lee that were significantly modified to accommodate her speed and flexibility.

The sand genin seemed to understand her, which should be expected as they had grown up likely in the same classes and the same village. But Masao could predict all of the other genin’s moves as well, easily avoiding his flurry of weapons and his attempts to capture her in genjutsu.

Her lack of chakra seemed to be the major problem, she recovered more slowly then most shinobi Iruka had noticed. Her chakra system itself seemed to hinder her, even though it was clear Masao was one of the most skilled and most powerful shinobi in this exam.

She was slowing, he knew that if she didn’t end the fight soon, she would collapse of exhaustion. It had been a complete skill stand still for the last hour. She was going to have to end it.

The decisive blow came when Masao had finally breached her opponent’s defenses and slammed her palm into his chest. “Ninja Art: Chakra Seal.” Swiping blood from her dripping nose, she quickly summoned chains and with a whirl about the genin, secured his hands and forced him face down into the ground.

“You traitor. You cannot use that jutsu, you are not a Sunagakure shinobi. Your mother was a traitor for teaching you, you spawn of calamity.” Masao froze and took a few steps back, seemingly taken aback. “Those techniques belong to my clan. You have no right to use them.”

Iruka turned to Anko who stood next to him. “Who is that boy?” She sighed, and pulled the match assignment from the pack at her hip. “Arashimae Naoya, of Masao’s mother’s clan. Their family specializes in sealing jutsu, similar to the Uzumaki clan. They are known for being able to temporarily seal other shinobi's chakra for days at a time. They are rumored to be able to contain the power of storms and seal the natural power within themselves to be summon through their weapons. Their clan is dying out though, most of the children being born aren’t capable of managing chakra.”

This explained Masao’s struggle to be a ninja, the only reason she even may have the amount of control she does, must be due to the blood she inherited from Jiraya. The boy looked similar to Masao with his icy blue eyes, the same storm symbol branded into the back of his neck as Masao had on her outer robe.  
The boy spat at her as she was declared the winner. As he was released, he struck her in the face. Iruka saw Naruto grab Lee’s arm as he was about to vault down to her from the stands. Even Gaara looked concerned.

But Masao simply let the fresh blood drip down her nose and turned to smile at the boy. “I hope your mother is doing well as head of the clan. I knew she wasn’t feeling well when she took on the role, but without a doubt she is succeeding. Your clan is very resilient.” She didn’t do anything as she was struck again as the proctor pulled him away, simply turning her back to the crowd letting the blood drip into the soil beneath her.

“How sad,” Anko murmured. “Even her clansman won’t accept her.”

Masao was promoted to chuunin, he never doubted that she would not be passed. She spent two weeks bedridden, her chakra system failing her after the exams. “It takes a lot of chakra to seal someone else’s complete network,” was all she told him.

Iruka had spent his free time away from the mission desk and the academy, to try and get Masao to explain to him what happened. He could see the pain eating away at her, slowly. “What happened with your clan?”

She turned to look at him, her red face whiskers suddenly streaked with the tears dripping from her eyes. “My mother gave birth to me out of wedlock. She had met a traveling sage and had fallen in love with him. She was the head of the Arashimae clan and married to a shinobi who was of the Tanigakure. When I was born it was clear that I was not his daughter, that she had snuck away to be with another man. They cast her from the clan and from her status as the head. Her husband died soon after during a mission, and she had no one to turn to. She wandered for a while and settled in the Land of Rivers where her husband had been from. The sage came to us named me, visiting only a few times throughout my life.”

“Jiraya is your father? I thought he was your grandfather. ”

Masao looked out the window, and pulled from her pack a single letter. It was clearly old and well read, by the way it was folded and browned with age. The girl wiped her eyes and simply held out the letter for him to see.

 _Masao-kun,_  
_I have only met you a few times, and I’m sorry about that. My commitments take my far away. I never expected your arrival. I will never be able to be a father to you, and I’m sorry all that you will inherit from me is my hair (an unfortunate thing really, your mother’s hair is beautiful)._  
_You have been alone your whole life, and I know it is my fault. You are being punished for your bloodline, and I doubt you will ever escape it. Before I even met you, I knew I would love you, and that is why you must never speak of me or admit you are of my lineage._  
_I am simply a wandering sage, who met a beautiful woman. You are one of the only good things I have ever created, but to protect you I cannot admit that you are mine. But in my heart, know that I will always think of you. I hope that you can find a family, and be loved by many._  
_Masao-kun, you are born into a world of strife and without a doubt war will find you. I don’t want you to be punished for my sins, as your mother has. Someday, I hope to be able to see you grow into a powerful shinobi and that I never have to challenge you._  
_I have attached a photo of me with you and your mother they week you were born. Your mother will have a few scrolls of techniques your mother will teach you when you’re older. Someday maybe I will be able to claim you as my own._  
_With much love,_  
_The Toad Sage_

The photo was not with the letter, but he assumed that Masao still had it along with the scrolls. “My mother said that if anyone ever know about my blood tie to my father, that I should simply tell them that he was my grandfather, it would hopefully bring the problem down to a smaller scale.”

Masao took the letter back and traced a bandaged finger over it. “I saw my father three times. When I was born. When the clan took my mother back when I became a genin when I was eleven. And for the last time right before he died two years ago. He was an interesting guy.”

Iruka didn’t know what to say. She simply seemed resigned, tired and full of sorrow.

“He was a good man. Albeit, a bit of a pervert, but he was powerful and very loyal,” Iruka consoled. She didn’t seem that interested in anything he had to see about Jiraya. It was likely because she never really knew him in the first place.

“My clansmen have developed a disease that prevents them from controlling their chakra pathways. One in ten children are able to control their systems enough to become shinobi. The only ones who have been able to become shinobi in my generation were my cousin Naoya and myself. Though, Naoya had always been healthier and with less problems with his chakra system.

"When they exiled my mother, they didn’t know that I would be able to control my chakra. It was only when they thought that I could become a shinobi did they let her return with me. For five years I was instructed in the clan’s jutsu, they hoped that I would marry my cousin and produce new healthier children.

“But then the attacks started. Missing-nin began attacking the village, trying to capture me. Whispers from my own clansman had drawn them to Sunagakure to find me. I inherited a kekkei genkai from the clan, the one that allows me to transform at will into any living thing. The last one to be able to use this transformation was four generations ago, the younger brother of the third clan head. Missing-nin have since searched for me in hopes of using me as a test subject to learn this technique.”

“So they did not try to find you for your link to Jiraya?”

Masao shook her head. “Though many may have disliked him, the interest has always been in the kekkei genkai over my paternal link. But my mother sealed that ability away as she died. Breaching the seal incorrectly will kill me instantly and destroy my body. The Hokage renewed what she could of the seals, but without a doubt the seal is weak enough that it can be broken correctly now and I will be free to use my kekkei genkai again. When that happens, the missing-nin will come again. The seal is the only thing keeping my chakra systems working. Every time I use a lot of chakra, it weakens the seal from the inside. Breaking the seal that way might kill me as well. When the seal is gone, if I am still living, I will never be able to use chakra again without imminent death.”

She looked at him, her eyes hard. There were no more tears. It was as if she had a plan already. Even if she did, she didn’t say, she simply examined the letter in her hands. Iruka knew that something was destined to happen, he just didn’t know what yet.

“I just want to leave behind something happy if I die.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, at the like two paragraphs of the good stuff, because I couldn't find the will power to write beyond that. I tried to write Masashi Kishimoto level sad back story, but is that even possible? I edited this while watched a marathon of Harry Pottter, so I'll probably have to come back and edit it again later. Lol at my attempts to make up jutsu part 2


	4. Losing One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto POV

Naruto and Lee had spent a lot more time together now that Masao had joined the village. There was sort of an uneasiness when it came about her though. It was like he had a little sister and Lee was trying to date her.

Honestly, he wasn’t really sure what was going on with the two of them. But it was clear that on Lee’s end at least, he really interested in her. Naruto currently was sitting with Lee at Ichiraku, fighting the urge to upend what bit of ramen he had left as Lee kept inquiring about Masao.

What made it worse, was that Masao had started saying, “Naruto-oniichan,” in such a cute way that he didn’t try and stop her. Even if he found it a little weird cause she was only a slightly bit younger then him.

“Naruto-kun,” Lee repeated. Naruto turned to look at him, with only mild annoyance. As shinobi, Naruto liked Lee. As a friend, Naruto like Lee. But as a potential suitor for Masao, he didn’t like Lee. He didn’t like any one sniffing around Masao. Shikamaru had broken up with Kiba, and now Kiba had started sniffing around Masao. Luckily the smell of dog on Kiba kept Masao pretty far away from him, so there was only one that he had to worry about now.

“What?”

“I would like to seek your approval to date Masao. I am aware that she holds you in high regards, so it would be only fitting to ask you if it is acceptable.” Naruto glowered into the dregs of his ramen. He wanted to say “hell no”, but knew it technically still wasn’t up to him. 

“I guess, but it’s only if she wants to.”

But as he thought about it, Masao was so self contained, that outside of training and general pleasantries, she didn’t say much or interact with anyone still. Even six months of living with Iruka, Kakashi, and him, still hadn’t broken her of this introversion. So he grinned and just figured she would turn him down. There was also the fact that Lee, who also was one to always uses honorifics, didn't use one anymore with Masao. Which meant that he was much closer to her then most of their peers, and that he probably would've tried with or without his blessing. 

His hopes were dashed as Masao cheerfully agreed, when she had finally gathered the strength to begin walking about. Now that her internal wounds had cleared up, she was up and running, training excitedly.

This was how he ended up with Hinata on a date with the other too, forced into nicer clothes. Upon Hinata’s urging, even Masao had changed into a dress, in which she looked very uncomfortable, but she tolerated.

Naruto almost broke his chopsticks when Lee so much as touched Masao’s shoulder. Hinata made attempts to simply stay him, reminding him how happy Masao seemed to be now. Slowly Naruto warmed up to the idea of Lee dating her, and even Iruka had given his blessing.

However it was without a doubt that Iruka, simply seemed to know so much more about the girl, that he couldn’t bear to do anything that would take happiness away. Naruto had tried to get Iruka to tell him Masao’s story, but he adamantly refused. Even Kakashi couldn’t get it out of him. Something major must be the issue.  
Masao had begun being sent on missions already. Naruto knew Tsunade would never let her become a Jonin, as respect to her home village and the safety of Konoha, but Masao was proving to be an effective asset.

Konoha had an excess of jonin anyway. This was the first time in years an entire generation produced this many high level shinobi, the village stood at the pinnacle of strength for the five great nations.

Naruto had taken Masao along with him on her first mission, tasked with making sure her promotion had been correct and that she was skilled enough to be a chuunin. Sakura and Kiba had accompanied them in a mission to find a wounded TenTen and her team of genin. It was an easy mission and it had proven effective to have Masao and her aggressive ninjutsu to ward off the remnants of the ambush that had tried to steal the artifact TenTen’s team had been tasked with finding.  
There hadn’t been many developments with Masao herself, for months she participated in active duty, being paired primarily with Lee due to their complementing skills. Naruto had seen the reports from their missions, and saw the perfect completion of 4 B-rank missions and 2 A-rank missions, no casualties, no major injuries, all directives completed.

Even Tsunade had been impressed with the turn out of their teamwork. He had been in the hokage’s office to turn in a mission and she had stopped him. “You know Naruto, if they married, they might produce one of the most effective taijutsu lines. It’s disappointing that both of them have virtually no chakra control or a child could be a distinctly powerful asset. They are powerful as it is. However, I don’t think that Masao can be in active duty much longer. She’s going to have to get used to village life soon,” she had told him.

“She’s completed more difficult missions in a little time, then anyone else,” Naruto protested.

“Her seals are breaking, she’s had too many close calls with her chakra system for it to be safe to keep sending her out there with good conscience that she could survive.”

He knew that the seals that had been covering her body had since receded significantly since she had gotten to Konoha. He didn’t really know what would happen if they broke, he couldn’t deny that it would not be good.

As he left the office, Masao entered, her hitae-ate tied around her forehead, a style she only took during a mission. Lee soon followed, but it seemed like they both knew what Tsunade was going to say.

Naruto was at the dinner table with Iruka when Masao had returned. She simply removed her hitae-ate and secured it back around her right arm. The only wounds he could see were a split lip and a cut beneath her right eye.

“I will be sent on one more mission, then I will no longer be a shinobi. I’ll join the academy and train to become a teacher,” she informed them. Naruto could see the standard flak jacket and black undershirt that sat in her lap. She was going to begin wearing the standard sensei uniform.

Iruka had tried to comfort her, but Naruto knew she didn’t want any. From everything Naruto had seen, Masao had lived to be helpful to the village in a way that Sunagakure had not allowed her to be. But she also desired to be able to practice jutsu and be in the field. This would be a hard loss for her.

Masao’s last mission had been assigned already. She would be partnered for the last time with Lee to get rid of a pair of rouge shinobi who had been hanging around near the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers.

There was panic when there was a call back for another team to reinforce them. Naruto and Hinata were deployed to find them and ensure their safety. “Something bad must have happened, there were only two shinobi, there’s no way they would lose,” Naruto said as they ran.

Hinata’s byakugan couldn’t find them. “They must be pretty skilled in hiding, I can feel their chakra, but I can’t find them.” It turned out Lee and Masao were trapped in set of tunnels dug deep within the forest.

By the time Naruto’s rasengan had opened up the earth enough to get into the tunnels, Lee and Masao were sprinting as fast as possible down the hall. “Naruto-oniichan,” Masao screamed. There were five shinobi following them down the tunnel. All of them were missing-nin.

An explosive tag was thrown, but Naruto watched as Lee shoved Masao forward into Naruto’s arms and took the bulk of the explosion. He hit the ground next to them, with some burns, but it seemed like he wasn’t too badly hurt. Masao turned and blew fire into the tunnel, but the five shinobi burst out completely unharmed.  
Masao’s kimono was ripped down the back, and Naruto could see the seal marks were almost completely gone. She was still performing jutsu, alongside them, the seals fading more and more with the extensive chakra usage.

“Masao, stop!” It was Lee, he pulled her from the fight. Naruto and Hinata were able to keep the enemies at bay, but he knew eventually they would break through. Masao was bleeding, her chakra system beginning to fail her. But this time she was still standing.

Hinata was knocked to the ground by two of the shinobi, who were working together to restrain her. Naruto couldn’t do anything but watch as they drove a chakra consuming katana into her stomach, pining her to the ground. “Hinata-neechan!” She was being drained quickly, and Naruto couldn’t reach her with the other three shinobi preventing him from reaching her.

“Give us Jiraya’s daughter,” the leader growled as he slunk around. Naruto finally got a good look at the hitae-ate slash around their necks. These missing-nin hailed from Tanigakure, the very village that had originally protected Masao.

“You can’t unseal it,” Lee cried. Naruto turned for slight second to see that she was flipping through hand signs at an accelerated pace. She placed her palm at her core, and the chakra that poured from her was so strong even he could see it. "I have to, I don't have enough chakra to fight."

She let out a shaky breath and her eyes were suddenly full of determination. “Ninja Art: Multiple Chakra Seals.” Masao sped towards the three shinobi Naruto was fending off. She was almost as fast as Lee when his first gate was unlocked. He watched as the shinobi fell, unable to move or produce chakra. Lee followed behind and took down the two controlling Hinata.

Hinata had enough chakra to repair most of the damage to her abdomen, but he knew she couldn’t fight.

He felt dread as three more shinobi appeared from the tunnels. Hinata couldn’t fight and Masao was clearly on her last legs by the way she trembled as she stood. The seal was now completely gone, and she had begun to have more and more lesions appearing across her body as her chakra system began an accelerated loss of control.

There was a snap from the side, and Naruto feared there would be more enemies, but it was Shikamaru. He hadn’t seen the Nara for months. He had been on multiple back to back espionage missions to track down the missing-nin who were hunting Masao. But in the end the enemy still had found Masao first. But Shikamaru had brought Ino and Choji with him. Between Naruto, Lee and Team 11, they managed to subdue the last three shinobi. Hinata denied Ino’s healing, and told them to try and heal Masao. But Masao was too far gone, it was clear that she was dying.

She pushed away their hands, and just laid there with her head in Lee’s lap. Naruto watched as she whispered to Lee. The taijutsu master frowned, but just smoothed her hair away from her face. She closed her eyes, and Lee simply said, “she’s gone.” And for several of them, tears began falling.

Naruto and the others stood in mourning at the grave stone, the ceremony was small, mostly just Masao’s peers and her teammates from team Anko. Iruka and Kakashi stood silently next him. The only person who had not made their appearance was Lee.

He remained alone in his mourning.

Masao hadn’t wanted to be buried in Konoha, she wanted to be buried at the border of the Land of Wind and the Land of Rivers, where she had spent most of her life. Tsunade herself had handled the burial, destroying any way her body could be desecrated for her kekkei genkai.

Her memory lingered though, Lee spent several weeks out of the village in mourning. Tsunade had granted him that leave. He had a lot of saved time anyway, but his absence was distinct.

With Lee and Masao gone, even Guy was more subdued. The Green Beast of Konoha had been seen standing at Masao’s gravestone every week or so, more so while Lee was gone. Naruto noticed that even Kakashi hadn’t been able to get a rise from him in a while.

Things slowly grew more normal as time passed. But Naruto knew sometimes Lee would disappear for days longer then excepted for individual missions, and took them more frequently. Naruto had confronted him once, when he returned.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed out there or something?! Is that why you’re out for so long. We all miss her, but you can’t just give up,” Naruto had yelled.  
Lee just looked at him, for once seeming to have no energy. Even six months later.

“I haven’t given up. I just need to keep busy.” When Naruto frowned at him, he continued. “Masao wanted to see the world. I just stay for a little longer when I leave the country, to see things she’ll never get to see.”

The night air rustled around them at the gate. Naruto watching Lee’s face. There was no lies there as far as he could tell.

“I love her. And now I can’t see her.”

There was nothing Naruto could do. Eventually the world moved back into it’s standard pace. Even he didn’t Masao’s grave stone as much, even though he knew he should. She lived with him for over a year.

He knew Iruka was the one who usually went and kept up with her grave stone, once every month or so. Lee and Guy would stop by about the same amount. In the back of his mind Naruto couldn’t let go of her either. He kept every person he had lost on his mind.

The village was changing around him as well, forcing him to take on more and more responsibility. Kakashi was hokage now and for one, Naruto had finally moved out to let him and Iruka have their privacy.

Naruto was set to marry Hinata soon as well, and they had finally moved into their own home. Nearly five years had passed since Masao’s death. Lee had become more and more absent, acting weirder in the last few years then he had for the last 23 years of his life. Finally Naruto had enough.

He followed Lee through a mission, meaning to confront him. But Lee had taken a path returning from his mission to go through the Land of Rivers. Naruto hid as he watched Lee trespass. Maybe this time he actually had a death wish.

But as he followed, Lee stopped at a house, and in the dead of night slipped in. Was he attacking someone? Naruto hadn’t thought the taijutsu master to do something like attack someone in their home.

Quickly Naruto followed to try and stop him, but when he got to the window, he was shocked.

There stood a white haired woman, with a tiny bundle in her arms. Lee was excitedly embracing her and examining the bundle. A child. Lee had been spending time away from the village to see her?

  
Suddenly it dawned on Naruto. She had been in hiding in death from those that wanted to kill her. Lee turned and saw him as she moved toward the kitchen. He saw Lee’s lips move, and then the taijutsu master appeared outside.

“Naruto-kun, you should not have followed me.”

“She was alive all this time? Everyone thought she was dead.” Pain built in Naruto’s chest, yet he couldn’t seem to find any anger.

“She needed to be protected. No one knows about her. No one can.” Lee’s eyes were, for the first time, hard and aggressive, and he looked ready to kill.

“Is that your kid?” Lee just nodded.

“Come inside, we do not want to bring attention.”

The woman looked at them, the child tied close to her body with a sling. Her hair was longer now, and she looked much older then she had when he had last seen her. He knew she was a bit young to be a mother, but she glowed with that maternal happiness.

“Naruto-oniichan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, my sons, I give you minor emotional pain. ??? I tried my best with characterization and making sure it was correct, so yeahhhh.


	5. Epilogue: The One the Storm Left Behind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iruka POV

It had been pouring rain one night, thunder and lighting beginning to clash in the sky. Iruka had gotten caught in the downpour as he had made a quick night trip to the edge of the village to retrieve an medicine for Naruto’s and Hinata’s newest child.

He was shocked to see Lee limping through the gate. The young man was covered in blood and holding a small form in front of him covered by a thick cloak. Iruka rushed to him, suddenly forgetting the rain.

“Save him,” was all he said before he passed out.

The boy sobbed when Iruka tried to pull him from Lee’s unconscious form. He was forced to leave the child and go get help. When he returned with Naruto, he heard Naruto curse when he saw them.

While Lee was in the hospital the boy wouldn’t leave Lee’s side, always curled next to him. Iruka had walked in once to hear Lee say, “we were attacked and I couldn’t save her. She’s gone now.”

Naruto had tried to comfort him, but the taijutsu master could not stop.

The boy was Lee’s son. Iruka had been surprised to find this out. That explained his frequent trips out of the village. His wife must have been a woman from another village. While it was not uncommon, he had never thought Lee to have found someone else.

No one knew who the mother of Lee’s son was. Lee refused to tell anyone. Iruka knew that Naruto knew, but outside of that no one seemed to be able to place it either.

In the end, Iruka taught Lee’s son Metal Lee just as he taught all of his other former student’s children. The boy had eventually grown out of clinginess and became very much like his father and his father’s sensei. Iruka was glad that now with Lee’s son here, Guy’s excitement had been recovered out of it’s dulled state since Masao’s death.

The smaller Lee was developing to be as powerful and excitable as his father, and eventually Lee recovered too. But there was distinctly something different from Lee that he noticed the son had. He could use ninjutsu and even basic genjutsu.

One day after school hours, he had watched from the window as Lee walked with his son away from the academy, smiling as he could see their happiness.  
And in the warm summer sun, he watched as the boy turned to his father and his hair momentarily turned stark white. When he blinked, the boy’s hair was black again and Lee ruffled his hair cheerfully.

Iruka’s heart jumped.

At least she had left behind something happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we have it. The end. I tried to explain Lee's kid and his lack of mother because wtf Masashi Kishimoto, taijutsu masters just don't reproduce by mitosis (although Guy might have just made Lee that way.... lol jk but still). I was thinking about making a follow up one shot to explain the weirdness of Lee's abnormal absences, but that'll prob take a little while. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading though!

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first multi-chaptered fic. 
> 
> Other notes: I really love NaruHina so much I can't even handle, but Lee is my son and I'm excited for his appearance to come lol. Also, I tried to keep things as accurate as possible and you don't know how much time I spent looking at Naruto Wikia.
> 
> Unbetaed, so yeah. Mistakes might be present regardless.
> 
> Edit (31 Aug): I am going through fixing the formatting things to make it less offensive to the eyes sorry about that lol


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